Solars Rise as Merrill Downgrades First Solar (FSLR), SunPower (SPWRA)
Merrill Lynch has made a convicted bearish call on the solar space today, downgrading two popular solar stocks, First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) and SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA).
The firm lowered its rating on First Solar from Buy to Neutral, and cut its price target in half from $200 to $100. For SunPower, Merrill moved its rating from Neutral to Underperform while cutting its price target from $30 to $16.
Despite the downgrade from one of the top analyst firms, shares of First Solar and SunPower are hanging onto solid gains heading into the afternoon trading session. First Solar is currently up about 2.6% to $89.51 and SunPower is up 6.2% to $20.18.
Based on today's price levels, Merrill sees upside of nearly 12% for shares of First Solar and downside of about 20% for shares of SunPower.
Elsewhere in the sector: Suntech (NYSE: STP) up 12%, LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) up 7%, JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) up 8%, Solarfun (Nasdaq: SOLF) up 12%, Cypress (NYSE: CY) up 5%, Yingli (NYSE: YGE) up 7%, Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) up 7%, Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) down 9%.
SunPower Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of solar electric power technologies.
First Solar, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells solar electric power modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology.
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